The Search Engine Belt Buckle

ptorrone writes "Engadget shows how they made "The Search Engine Belt Buckle" a PDA-based device which shows 24 hours of all the bizarre and banal things people are looking for on the web. Art project or pointless hack? That's for you to decide, people are searching for some pretty freaky stuff out there, so why not put in a belt buckle and get on the scene like a sex machine?"

Sure, I'll bite...

[SIGALRM]

"Engadget shows how they made "The Search Engine Belt Buckle"

Finally, something from the good folks at Edgadget [engadget.com] that all of us can actually use.

Oh, it looks cool all right. I want people to stop me on the street and ask about it.

"Excuse me, sir, but why does your belt say 'night diaper bondage'?"

Re:Sure, I'll bite...

[Kenja]

"Excuse me, sir, but why does your belt say 'night diaper bondage'?"

Anser back: "Why doesn't yours?". Hell, based on the size of this thing I think they're targeting Texas geeks.

Both?

[kjones692]

Art project or pointless hack? Why can't it be both?

Re:Both?

[Hast]

They use Windows media to record a bunch of text they get from a search spy. This is data coming from a web broser. They then compress the video and play it fullscreen on a PDA as a screensaver.

A hacker would have captured the data and just used the built in screen saver (or a program of your own) to display it. That would have saved room for a lot more data, looked better and saved batteries. Besides then you could send updates wirelessly to the machine to actually get real-time data.

But it could be interesting to make a "message of the day" thing which captures data from a search spy. Or a screen saver which displays search spy data (not work safe).

chic magnet

[Anonymous Coward]

boy, this must work well with the girls!
"hey baby, check out my new search engine belt buckle"

Re:chic magnet

[scrod]

I don't know, seems like a rather effective way to get people to bend down and observe your crotch area with great interest.

Re:chic magnet

[varjag]

The scariest thing is that you got rated Insightful.

I'm outta here..

OT: "chic" vs "chick"

[Iffy Bonzoolie]

Ok, I am a software engineer, and thusly a pedantic fuck, so I have to posit: When I see chic [reference.com] I think its pronounced "sheek" and means trendy or popular. When I talk about an attractive young adult female human, I think chick [reference.com], like a baby chicken. Am I wrong? Dictionaries seem to support me.

Though, I have to admit that chicks are often chic.

-If

“night diaper bondage”

[Epistax]

I had to GIS it. You'll be happy there are no results. However I do have a sudden desire to start a website called "diaperse".

great idea

[Quasar1999]

I like the idea, but it would be way funnier if it displayed the slashdot fortune/QOTD from the bottom of the site... that's more screwed up than any search query on google... Right now it says "I'm a GENIUS! I want to dispute sentence structure with SUSAN SONTAG!!" How the hell could that be less weird than a search term? Really???

Re:great idea

[focitrixilous P]

quite possible. Get a linux PDA, script it up to run 'fortune' every so often, and there you go. Insight and a belt buckle, for the cost of a PDA.

Re:great idea

[ImaLamer]

Zippy the Pinhead strikes again!

Want a fortune without Zippy quotes? (which are mainly cooler than Zippy's?)

Then Click here! [mintruth.com]

Sorry, no ASCII art either though.

Good example fortune:

[ImaLamer]

Humor in the Court:
Q. Doctor, did you say he was shot in the woods?
A. No, I said he was shot in the lumbar region.

Seen something liek this before...

[thegoogler]

I remember hearing that there is a monitor at google headquaters(i think it was in wired magazine) that scrolls random searches that are currently being done, cool idea.... but not new

Re:Seen something liek this before...

[Anonymous Coward]

Kinda like this.

http://www.metaspy.com/info.metac.spy/metaspy/

Something like that in German...

[harmonica]

...provided by search engine Fireball [fireball.de]. Even shows you if web or image search was used. Well, in some cases that's rather obvious. ;-)

Re:Seen something liek this before...

[ZorbaTHut]

Yes, there is. It's equally mesmerizing - I've sat there and watched it for a few hours. Funny searches:

paris hilton (no less than seven times)
UTOPIA (you're not gonna find it if you can't fix your capslock)
www.google.com (found it!)
net (I can only wonder what they were searching for)
BIG BROTHER (no, no we're not watching you)
. . . and at least two or three phone numbers, which I was very tempted to call.

"Hi! Who is this? Did you know someone's searching for you on Google?"

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

38,600 matches

[Poilobo]

WTF! There are 38,600 matches for "night diaper bondage"

Okay that's it, we're all going straight to hell.

Re:38,600 matches

[shadowbearer]

Okay that's it, we're all going straight to hell.

Well, that's a relief.

Do ya figure it'll be colder or warmer? Will they allow PDA's there, or will they be mandatory? I can just about visualize the interface :D

SB

Re:38,600 matches

[Lord_Breetai]

Will they allow PDA's there, or will they be mandatory?

I see you haven't played Doom 3 yet. ^_^

Not so sure....

[hot_Karls_bad_cavern]

i want some device that close to my "procreator" displaying such a mad display of .....hrm

wait...i can view this thing in my own room ya?

Say...

[Joey Patterson]

Is that a Google search on your belt or are you just happy to see me?

insightful!!!!

[celeritas_2]

watching search engine queries is like looking into the minds, the hopes and desires of millions of people around the world. Just one more step to our goal of godlike knowledge of everything that's going on everywhere. //warning....warning.....overrated

Everyone knows

[madsenj37]

A belt buckle is a tombstone for a dead dick.

Re:Everyone knows

[shadowbearer]

Put a magnet in it and it's a prostate cancer cure.

Hey! I got an email that said it's so! Advertising never lies, right?

Right?

SB

I dunno

[iamdrscience]

If anybody actually wants to do something like this, it would probably make more sense to get a cheap LCD and a microcontroller. You could put together something that works similarly for maybe $20.

Re:I dunno

[kidgenius]

The perfect, cheap LCD would probably be out of that little "disposable" digital camera shown on /. a few days ago. The size is perfect in comparison to the huge, gaudy PDA.

Re:I dunno

[iamdrscience]

I actually made a post suggesting exactly that in the discussion about that article.

I see the attraction

[number]

A great many people use search engines as modern-day confessional booths - supposedly confidential ways to bear their most personal and private thoughts (well, search engines are more useful, but suck at spiritual advice).

And who wouldn't want to listen in on a confessional booth every now and then? Sure you'll never know who made what search, but it's a peek inside someone's psyche that you would never get the chance to see otherwise. Mental voyeurism.

Plus you may (~may~) find out that everyone else really is as weird as you in private. But why you'd need this on a belt buckle is anyone's guess.

Re:I see the attraction

[humankind]

Does Google have an area where real-time search queries are displayed?

Re:I see the attraction

[tpgp]

Does Google have an area where real-time search queries are displayed?

Afraid not - the closest Google have is the Google zeitgeist

However - some of the other (crappier) search sites do.

The only one I can find at the moment is Metacrawler's Metaspy [metaspy.com]. God - just been watching it for a few seconds - it includes the gems:

* how to measure body fat percentage with a tape measure and scale
* thongs for 7 year olds
* ubaid alien
* uncensored olympic gymnastic photos

I also found The Disturbing Search Requests Page [weblogger.com] - gleaned from some guy's referrer logs...It includes such goodies as 'clitoris size scale' and 'vampire "breasts grow"'

Re:I see the attraction

[dargaud]

I also found The Disturbing Search Requests Page - gleaned from some guy's referrer logs

I also did that a couple years ago and collected the results with comments [gdargaud.net]

I know that guy!

[aussie_a]

I went to Metacrawler's Metaspy and saw this as something that was searched 'hhjipqbmoi' and I realised I knew that guy. I get e-mails from him all the time.

Re:I see the attraction

[CmdrGravy]

Or maybe they are trying to tell us something ?

Re:I see the attraction

[eclectro]

I have wondered the same thing often, but I have not found it.

The may never put something out as it could possibly allow someone to find out more about the algorithms that they use.

Not that this hasn't been done anyway now, as increasingly my searches return link farms, and searches totally unrelated to my queries.

I might even say that *gasp* they might be starting to lose their edge due to people trying to "game" google.

Re:I see the attraction

[randyest]

You're on to something.

And you really need a group hug [grouphug.us].

Seriously -- you'll love it (if you haven't seen it.)

Re:I see the attraction

[Enucite]

That's amazing...
I just wasted about 3 hours on that site.

Thanks, I think you just found me a replacement for slashdot on slow news days.

Re:I see the attraction

[M. Silver]

And who wouldn't want to listen in on a confessional booth every now and then? Sure you'll never know who made what search, but it's a peek inside someone's psyche that you would never get the chance to see otherwise. Mental voyeurism.

You get some of that, on a sufficiently eclectic site, just grepping through the referers [sic] in the web log (no, not that kind of web log, the real kind).

Google's not the best one for that, though. Ask.com (Ask Jeeves) is better, because people apparently think the thing is Eliza and have conversations with it.

I did get one goodie from Google: "So maybe it's not exactly 'inspiration' per se, probably more like boredom, but i'm back! yippie!" I'm not sure if they got the Google and IM windows mixed up or what.

I at one point started documenting them, with commentaries, but I haven't updated it in awhile:

http://www.phoenyx.net/cgi-bin/twiki/bin/view/Ma in /SillySearches

What do you do if you think someone is trying to kill you?
WHAT ARE THE CORRECT CUTTING TORCH SETTINGS
hey man expensive looking boots
how do i cook snake
"upgrade to Word for OS X"

The scary thing is that all those searches found my site.

No belt-buckle searches have appeared yet, to the best of my knowledge.

Re:I see the attraction

[NanoGator]

From your site: "How does one make Trill spots?"

Man, I want to make fun of whoever typed this in, but I know the answer. :(

Re:I see the attraction

[CmdrGravy]

The most intriguing from my logs is

"german whore fare"

Re:I see the attraction

[CmdrGravy]

I know I am replying to my own post but this query was just a little touching

"what happens at a gentlemans club"

Aaah, so young, so innocent !

Re:I see the attraction

[evn]

A great many people use search engines as modern-day confessional booths

"Bless me google for I have sinned [google.com]" doesn't work for me.

Damn! Google must know I'm not catholic!

Re:I see the attraction

[shadowbearer]

Mental voyeurism

Usenet (.)(?)(!)?

SB

Re:I see the attraction

[ManxStef]

A great many people use search engines as modern-day confessional booths - supposedly confidential ways to bear their most personal and private thoughts (well, search engines are more useful, but suck at spiritual advice).

Sounds a bit like Group Hug [grouphug.us].

Be nifty

[thewldisntenuff]

if it had wifi....Could update it 24/7

But an interesting project nonetheless....

-thewldisntenuff

Re:Be nifty

[Anonymous Writer]

if it had wifi....Could update it 24/7

FTA...

If there's WiFi it can stream in live queries, but since that's always an unknown, we have a few hours of search queries on hand at all times.

It does have WiFi.

the real reason

[humankind]

I guess if you have no other reason to get women to stare at you crotch, this will work.

NES Buckles

[BoneThugND]

It's almost as cool as The Legendary Nintendo NES Controller Belt Buckle [nesbuckle.com].

The long rumored, much talked about, infamous Nintendo NES Controller Belt Buckle. This belt buckle, once brushed off as merely a myth in the gaming world, is now available to grace your pants.

Re:NES Buckles

[real_smiff]

RTFAQ:

"

These are the coolest belt buckles I've ever seen?" [nesbuckle.com]

yeah!

but seriously, agreed of course, this is not cool. in fact the only word i know to describe it would be (don't hit me!) gay. just look at the hand in that picture.

"and then hot glued shiny beads to the outside."

yes.. that says it all really. clearly a tech, not a fashion designer. too large, too much gold painted plastic. imho. (also the screen would get scratched to hell wouldn't it?) or was this supposed to be a joke and it's too ea

A similar effect...

[rde]

I've had hours (okay, minutes) of amusement by doing something similar; using the passive search feature of gtk-gnutella to see what others were looking for. People do indeed look for weird shit.

You can always tell how many are using the system for the first time by the number of times there's a search for the word 'porn' by itself. I'm tempted to try it out myself, but I'm afraid that with only 256Mb of ram, my computer will blow up.

Video clips?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell are they using video clips to display this information? Why not, you know, a text file of the search terms? This seemed cool and all, but when I saw that they were using Windows Media Player to do screen capture on a website, they instantly lost 50 square geek points. Square points!

Re:Video clips?!?

[zymurgyboy]

I'm guessing they use video clips instead of text because they can "scroll" through the list, capturing text and motion. They did say they were doing a screen capture.

Whoa, I just had a vision of some dude scrolling through text near his crotch in WordPad by hand with his stylus, standing in a club... and I really didn't like.

Re:Video clips?!?

[shut_up_man]

Totally, totally agree. If they were using ascii or Google's stripped-down HTML, they'd be able to put a year's worth of searches on there, instead of 24 hours. God, they could put the RESULTS of 24 hours worth of searches!

Re:Video clips?!?

[RedWizzard]

Why the hell are they using video clips to display this information? Why not, you know, a text file of the search terms? This seemed cool and all, but when I saw that they were using Windows Media Player to do screen capture on a website

The site they're using to get the search terms (Dogpile's Searchspy [dogpile.com]) uses flash to display them in a scrolling list. So they can't just do a text screen-scrape.

Re:Video clips?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

...uses flash to display them in a scrolling list.
...which in turn, uses an XML feed as it's data source.

Rhyming Fools

[Wes Janson]

*I* say that the next person who submits a story with any sort of intentional rhyming should be drawn, quartered, and then slashdotted. And yes, I know what all of those things are.

I'm lost for words...

[EvilCabbage]

.. at just how pointless this is.

Fine, they're thinking "outside the box" but all they've done is duct tape a pda to a belt. Scroll some video across it and all of a sudden it's a "hack"?

I should submit a story about the day I broke the power button on my PC and replaced it, that was a hella wicked hack!

Re:I'm lost for words...

[JaredOfEuropa]

all they've done is duct tape a pda to a belt.

A modern businessman would have done all that, and then patented the idea as well.

Art project or pointless hack?

[Baricom]

Art project or pointless hack?

There's a difference?

Re:Art project or pointless hack?

[Anonymous Writer]

There's a difference?

Yes. "Art project" gets a better price tag. "Pointless hack" just gets it on Slashdot.

Multipurpose device

[Ralph Wiggam]

Besides displaying search engine queries, this belt buckle also emits powerful female repellent rays. I doubt a girl would even get close enough to say "jesus christ that's the ugliest, geekiest thing I've ever seen."

-B

A much more entertaining game to play is

[Artifex]

A much more entertaining game to play is, which product(s) is Engadget actually shilling in its latest article?

We all know that this is a commercial blog, so for this last article, was it Windows Media 9, Dogpile's SearchSpy, the PocketPC division of Microsoft, or some combination of them all?

Hmmmm.

[sbszine]

Also, the Slashdot submitter appears to be the buckle-maker, but hasn't bothered to mention this.

Bat Search Belt

[eomnimedia]

Batman: Quick! Robin! The...batoogle...search..belt....

Robin: Wha?

Batman: Never mind.

So what

[shadowbearer]

I'm still waiting for a belt device with a hi-res LCD screen which will show me the latest and best porno from the web. Just need to enter a little bit of preference info.

It'd probably sell a helluva lot better than this would. :)

SB

Common Searches

[ozmanjusri]

There are a few places where you can check on live searches, and there are a lot of advertisers who are very interested in the results.

http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/article.php/215 6041 [searchenginewatch.com]
is a site which aggregates a lot of the searches.

On occasion, I find it quite relaxing watching the queries scroll up the screen like some wierdly twisted ascii lava lamp, and the content of some of those queries makes me feel reasuringly normal by comparison.

A new slashdot effect..

[pherthyl]

I like that once in a while the phrase
"Why are you watching?"
scrolls past. A new symptom of the slashdot effect I guess ;)

no wifi or bluetooth

[sPaKr]

It just plays a static move of search requests. Thats weak. It should find a phone via bluetooth dial to the internet, update the search request list and then display in real time. Bonus points if it hacks the any available phone to use a data source. How kick ass would it be to walk up to somone.. notice their phone starts to dial.. see your belt buckle update.. and then walk away.

Ahhh the referrals log...

[Capt'n Hector]

It's always amusing to see which google searches hit your site. I kid you not, I've had:

sexy salesperson girl gallery
possum probe

Try it! What sort of sickos are surfing your website? Post em here!

I'm being watched

[duggie]

"olympic nude athletes"
"leaving the scene of an accident"
"night diaper bondage"
"food"
"used juicer"
"catfighting lesbians"
"disorder cutting self injury"

It may only be a coincidence but I think someone's been watching what I google. Oh wait, they have "food" listed. Phew I was scared for a minute there.

One obvious question

[serutan]

Who does "we" mean?

"So we thought, hey..."
"We couldn't resist the temptation..."
"We grabbed some stuff and were off."
"We might make a smaller one..."
etc.

Social butterflies though many Slashdotters may be, something tells me that in this particular case it's the figurative "we" as opposed to more than one actual person working on this.

Doesn't mean it's not a cool hack though, say we.

I wonder if it ever takes you here...

[DaedalusLogic]

This would be quite an ironic and funny thing to display on that belt.

http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/tshirt.php?sku= a4 4

The single best search query I've ever seen

[ChopsMIDI]

While scanning over the stats for my website last month, I came across the absolute funniest search query I've ever seen:

"i want a free and easy fucking simple image viewing program god"

Intersting result ...

[oostevo]

I was watching the 'search snooper' they use for the belt (it's at dogpile.com) and we've apparently made quite a few people mad ...

I've seen at least ten searches entitled "die slashdotters"

My new life goal..

[Klowner]

Great, now I feel compelled to visit google every few minutes and search for "The person wearing this belt is a sexual pervert".

You know a search query site has been on Slashdot

[Hopelessness]

When the results start showing trolls such as "die slashdotters"

Die slashdotters

[YeeHaW_Jelte]

Went to the search spy site to have a look at current queries, first query I see was "die slashdotters" ... maybe some frustrated webmaster?

Did anyone notice...

[XeRXeS-TCN]

That when you look at the Searchspy list, someone has recently searched for "die slashdotters" :p

Slightly pointless all in all, there's no real skill involved in using WMP on a PDA which you've essentially duct taped to yourself. Since most people won't actually see what it says (unless you're comfortable with the idea of a large group of men and women squatting in a nightclub, huddled around your crotch... but maybe that's your thing) it would be more fun to actually play a proper movie, like a disco scene or some psychadelic winamp-style visualisation, so you could actually appreciate the belt beyond about 6 inches away...

Re:Did anyone notice...

[FlashBuster3000]

omfg, stop searching for "eaten alive"+video+clips !!

Who's this gonna attract?

[koi88]

Male virgin geeks like, um, a friend of mine.

yeah but

[t_allardyce]

lame belt
people point and laugh
"girls who just want to look at your PDA"
windows media encoder weak
real geeks decompile swf
record xml datastream
chicks dig xml
another idea
search engine hikus

Die Slashdotters.... no really!

[dj245]

"Die Slashdotters" now seems to be a frequent message on the searchspy for Dogpile [dogpile.com], where they seem to have gotten their search spying from. Perhaps someone at Dogpile doesn't like the extra traffic? Or maybe someone is just having their browser refresh ever 5 seconds.

Look what came up

[indros13]

I decided to take a peek at their web-based "buckle" and it's clear that either the Slashdot trolls have found a new hobby or their server maintenance guys are not thrilled to see us.

One of the search terms was "die slashdotters."

subscription sales

[stock]

"Google Enterprise Sales, how can we help you?"
"Hi I'd like to have a subscription on the search queries made by Bill Gates on google.."
"Ohh good choice Sir, this one is most popular, please hold ..."

Re:Maybe we can have an award

[the_meager]

So how many of us geeks were twisted enough to find out what came up when you searched for "Vampire shemale beastiality bondage"?

I for one will probably be having nightmares tonight...

Re:Maybe we can have an award

[Glendale2x]

So how many of us geeks were twisted enough to find out what came up when you searched for "Vampire shemale beastiality bondage"?

Enough to ensure it'll make the list.

Re:Maybe we can have an award

[drinkypoo]

I think I can beat that, at least for persons of approximately my generation: Courtesy memepool [memepool.com], transformer porn [fateback.com].

Re:Maybe we can have an award

[ManxStef]

Kinda reminds me of what happened when we ran this Caption Competition [ballagroove.com]. My, how we giggled - and were disturbed - when we saw the search-engine stats for that! It seems like a lot of people out there like drinking horse semen, for instance: ewwwwwwwwww!

Re:Maybe we can have an award

[knodi]

I was trying to find the site of a product called the "Stadium Buddy", but couldn't remember specific enough search terms. I confidently told my friends "oh, of course it's real. just google for recreational catheter". You know, because it's an external bladder you can wear to sporting events.

Whooooooa buddy were those the wrong search terms. I consider myself pretty jaded to the internet, but even I was shocked at the stuff that turns up. Erotic fiction about catheters? Even a quite illegal gay kiddie porn site from a guy who enjoys catheterizing and diapering preteens who are handcuffed in his basement.

I think your contest should be for "most screwed up query with innocent intentions". And must contain only true stories. Should be interesting...

Re:Maybe we can have an award

[mrdaveb]

Next time you find an "illegal gay kiddie porn site from a guy who enjoys catheterizing and diapering preteens who are handcuffed in his basement", consider reporting it to the police!

Re:Maybe we can have an award

[Dusabre]

I find it disturbing that there are people who willingly piss themselves because they gorge themselves on soft drinks (or beer) and absolutely cannot miss a couple of seconds of the game. Can't you hold it in until the break?

I thought I was pretty jaded...

Re:Maybe we can have an award

[tunabomber]

Ooh lemme try:

"furry androgyne ferret bestiality pyromaniac necrophilia kiddie elephantitis nasal sex pics"

Now THAT's deviant. DO I WIN!? (and if so) WHAT DO I WIN!?

A restraining order? Wow, thanks...

raay, Taxiderminecrobestixenopaedophilia!

[Johnny Mnobflaps]

An unhealthy fondness for stuffed dead alien baby animals.

As an added bonus you can sing it to the tune of Supercalifragilistic etc.

Not that I'd go so far as to recommend doing so. (or imagining Julie Andrews doing so)

"DIE SLASHDOTTERS" just came across SearchSpy

[b00m3rang]

comedy!

Re:"DIE SLASHDOTTERS" just came across SearchSpy

[tverbeek]

It's showing up over and over and over and over.

Re:"DIE SLASHDOTTERS" just came across SearchSpy

[skroz]

Yeah, that's me. Sorry about that. Uh, don't worry about it.

Re:Two Words For You...

[eliza_effect]

The wonders of /g/

Re:This is not a web page

[andfarm]

There are open-source Flash plugins and readers, you know...

Link no worky-worky

[b00m3rang]

n/t